Computers and Doors

So, I’ve not had as much for the blog lately. Have been kind of busy . . . 

Yes, the above is running despite its guts being spilled all over my desk. So, my previous computer set-up was such:

Internal:
one system drive (240MB, SSD), one data drive (1 TB), one data backup drive (1TB)

External:
one external drive (3 TB) for all photos and graphics (Nikon, Phone, Panasonic P&S)
one external backup drive (3 TB) for all photos and graphics (Nikon, Phone, Panasonic P&S)

Misc: one 4 TB drive, one 2TB drive, one 1.5 TB drive for tertiary backup (monthly). These drives are normally inside my fire-resistant safe (good for two hours at some-now-forgotten high temperature).

Some might call this obsessive . . . some who never lost some of their fiction writing or some of their original photos.

A few months ago the internal backup drive stopped working. No warning; one day it no longer showed up. A few weeks ago the desktop backup drive stopped reading. I plugged them into my older PC to make sure it was independent of connections and/or hardware.

Nope! Dead as doornails. 

Now, both drives are under warranty. I could send them in and get replacements . . . except that I don’t know that my data is actually irretrievable. I suspect what failed is the peripheral internal hardware, and not actually the platters with my data.

I could send the drives in, but would not be 100% certain my data would remain, in fact, private. It would be nice if, for instance, the drive manufacturers asked for the control board or some other identifying item as proof-of-no-life and I could keep the platters.

Failing that, I’ll eat the cost of new drives and permanently destroy the malfunctioning drives (after salvaging the amazingly powerful magnets therein). I will be very happy when Solid State Drives come down in price.

I had both PCs taken apart so I did me some thinking (it hurt!) and worked out a new scheme for how I handle data. While I was at it, I cleaned up a lot of the data on the old PC and made sure I got everything useful and worthwhile from it in preparation for possibly selling it (or for doing something else with it – it’s an XP machine, but still very powerful even by today’s standards).

My current configuration consists of two internal 4-TB Black Drives (designed for gaming or other heavy usages). One to hold all my data (graphic or otherwise) and one to hold a copy of all my data (graphic or otherwise). The two still functioning drives are stored as “time-vaults”, and the tertiary drives will continue their duty as failsafe drives.

In addition, because the safe might not survive a direct hit by a re-entering Voyager I spacecraft traveling at a small (but still significant) fraction of the speed of light, I am looking into cloud storage. If I go that route, I will likely encrypt the crap out of stuff locally before uploading it. What? Sure, you say there is no chance of that happening, but some people don’t agree with that . . . I asked.

BTW . . . I’m listening to this (among other things) . . . 

OK . . . Doors. 

Somewhere, for some reason I’ve yet to fathom, someone is issuing weekly challenges, and this week it’s doors. If I understand it correctly, I’m not to walk up to a random door and kick the snot out of it; no, I’m meant to photograph it and show it here, on my blog.

Now, I don’t know nothin’ ’bout photoin’ no doors, but I can sure give it a try . . . the above is a train car door. I assume it’s operable, otherwise that is not so much a picture of a door as a picture of a slab of steel with a fancy paint job. 

I looked at what others were offering up . . . well, shoot! I ain’t got nothing like that, all fancied-up-artsy-like. Don’t get me wrong, I got me an artsy door like, for instance . . . 

 

. . . but I think fancy-pants (and petticoats) folks would call that “vulgar”. 

I do got me some more refined doors from the Cripple Creek Visitor Center:

. . . but I ain’t figured out if them doors have enough “character” for the challenge crowd . . . if maybe I do it up in B&W . . .

Ya’ know, I reckon that’ll be too refined. Me thinks something that has been through a bit of life, has seen things, and has maybe been scarred by what it has done seen.

. . . uh . . . maybe not quite that scarred . . . maybe more a bit like this:

OK, OK . . . one can do refined with a bit of character . . .

All them doors above surely have a voice, each spilling their story in quiet desperation . . . but this next door, this next door speaks of strength and determination, of functionality and purpose . . . it speaks of unpretentious utility.

That there is, my esteemed fancy-pants and dear petticoats readers, a root cellar, and this is its door:

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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